Scotch done the very old-fashioned way

February 07, 2014|By Anthony Pioppi, Special to Tribune Newspapers

CAMPBELTOWN, Scotland — One hundred years ago, on days when the wind was right, the sour smell of mash enveloped Campbeltown. Then this speck of a community tucked into a small harbor near the end of the Kintyre Peninsula on the western side of the country was widely considered the whisky capital of the world.

At its peak, there were as many as 24 distilleries working at one time in a town with a population of perhaps 8,000 (now it's about 5,000).

The distillers produced a whisky that was peated, giving it a smoky flavor, but not as bold a smokiness as those malts produced on the nearby island of the Islay.

A series of factors, from heavy taxation to overproduction to poor quality, led most of the town's distilleries to cease production in the mid-1920s. Over time, only a couple were left.

But now Campbeltown is back on the Scotch Whisky Association's map as a whisky region, just like Speyside, Highland, Lowland and the aforementioned Islay, though only three distilleries operate there. The whisky produced by one, Springbank, is cherished around the world.

Owned by the J&A Mitchell and Co., Springbank Distillery is the only Campbeltown distillery that has been in continuous operation since its founding, in 1828.

Campbeltown is on the far southeastern shore of Kintyre, which is only 3 miles across at that point, about 80 miles due southwest of Glasgow. The near constant western winds coming from the sea affect Springbank's flavor, according to Frank McHardy, who when we spoke was winding up a 50-year career in Scotch, finishing as director of production at Springbank.

"Salt is in the air," he said. "We like to think casks are a breathing entity, and they'll be infused by the salt."

The Springbank distillery, however, is unique for many more reasons. It touts its production method as the only whisky distillery in Scotland in which every step of the process is done on site, from malting the barley to filling and labeling the bottles.

The work can be intense. For instance, during the round-the-clock malting, when the barley is induced to germinate, it is turned, among other methods, by a worker pulling a rakelike grubber.

The temperature on the malting floors is maintained at 70 degrees. This comes not from heaters, however, but from the germinating barley. Temperature then is maintained by opening or closing windows and manipulating the layer of the barley, or malt, to various depths. That's old-fashioned!

Springbank also is the only whisky that is distilled 21/2 times, which is a bit of a marketing point. So it's mellower than Scotch distilled twice but not as mellow as the thrice distilled. All other Scotches are distilled either two or three times.

The pot-distilling method used by Springbank also is slower and requires more hands-on labor, as opposed to the commonly used continuous-distillation method.

A lightly peated single malt, Springbank varieties that have been aged 10, 15 or 18 years are available in the United States, costing $65, $110 and $150 respectively.

The distillery also produces the heavily peated, twice-distilled Longrow and the unpeated, triple-distilled Hazelburn. Rounding out the selections is the blended Campbeltown Loch. None of those is available in the United States, so you'll have to make the trip for them.

Springbank keeps a tight control on its output, producing only 40,000 six-bottle cases a year of the namesake line.

"We'll manage production so we don't overproduce," McHardy said. "Our aim is to make people look for it. We don't want to flood the market."

There are those who covet what Springbank has to offer. In June, a Japanese liquor store paid about $75,400, for a Springbank 1919 bottled in 1970. A representative flew from Japan to make the purchase from Cadenhead's Whisky Shop in Campbeltown, a business owned by Springbank. In 1970, that same bottle could have been purchased for $168 with the exchange rate at the time.

"I'd like to say I've drunk some, but I haven't," McHardy said of the 1919, with a tinge of disappointment.

Sam Baker is the founder and CEO of Haversham & Baker Golfing Expeditions, a high-end golf travel company based in Cincinnati with clients throughout the Midwest. He has been to Scotland hundreds of times, sampled innumerable single malts and is an unabashed fan of the Springbank 21-year-old.

Much to his chagrin, the 21-year-old is very difficult to come by. Baker does, though, have a bartender at one of his favorite Scottish bars who squirrels away a bottle that Baker said is taken out only for him.

"The extra aging in bourbon casks gives it buttery undertones rather like a heavily oaked Chardonnay," Baker wrote in an email. "Like a very fine, aged Bordeaux, Springbank 21 changes as it opens up in the glass."